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BILL ANALYSIS
HIGHER EDUCATION
S.B. 474
By: Ogden (Delisi)
3-29-97
Committee Report (Unamended)
BACKGROUND
Currently, Chapter 54, Texas Education Code (TEC), stipulates that military personnel and their
dependents stationed in Texas are eligible for in-state tuition rates. Similar language relating to
military personnel stationed outside of Texas, however, is vague. Individual institutions evaluate
student applicants on a case-by-case basis, resulting in inconsistent and sometimes conflicting
determinations.
Problems with the Texas law were highlighted recently in state and national publications.
Military families who had planned and taken steps for their children to attend universities in
Texas, as residents, were surprised to discover that they were ineligible for in-state tuition rates.
In one military family, one daughter was denied residency status at one university while the other
was granted residency status at a second university. The circumstances for both daughters were
the same; however, the rulings by the individual institutions conflicted. Non-resident tuition rates
at the one school cost that family an additional $8,100 a year.
State statutes in the TEC and rules by the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board provide
guidelines for schools; however, the final decision is left to individual schools. The purpose of
SB 474 is to clarify, in statute, the eligibility criteria relating to residency status for military
personnel and their dependents.
PURPOSE
S.B. 474 provides specific guidelines for granting resident tuition to persons residing in Texas
who are the spouses and children of members of the Armed Forces who are stationed outside the
state.
RULEMAKING AUTHORITY
It is the committee’s opinion that this bill does not expressly grant any additional rulemaking
authority to a state officer, department, agency or institution.
SECTION BY SECTION ANALYSIS
SECTION 1. Amends Section 54.058, Education Code, by adding Subsections (d) and (i), as
follows:
(d) Provides that a spouse or child of a member of the Armed Forces of the United States
not assigned to duty in Texas, but has previously resided in Texas for a 12-month period
is entitled to pay in-state tuition and fees, if the member:
(1) executed, at least one year prior to the first day of the semester, a document
that indicates Texas as their permanent residence address and designates Texas to
be their permanent residence for income tax purposes;
(2) has been registered to vote in Texas the entire year prior to the first day of the
semester; and
(3) satisfies at least one of the following:
(A) has owned real property in Texas and has not been delinquent in any
payments for the entire year prior to the first day of the semester;
MMA S.B. 474 75(R)
(B) has had an automobile registered in Texas for the entire year prior to
the first day of the semester; or
(C) has executed a will that has not been revoked indicating Texas as that
member’s residence and filed the will with the county clerk in the county
of residency at least one year prior to the the first day of the semester.
(i) Provides that a former member of the Armed Forces of the United States or the former
member's spouse or child is entitled to pay in-state tuition and fees for any term or
semester at a state institution of higher education that begins before the first anniversary
of the member's separation from the Armed Forces if the former member retired or was
honorably discharged and has complied with requirements in Subsection (d).
SECTION 2. Effective date: fall semester, 1997.
SECTION 3. Emergency clause.
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